Review: Tree Brewing Raspberry Porter

I love raspberries, I love porter, will these two work in an omlicious combination as a beer?

Tree Brewing out of Kelowna, BC released their most recent seasonal, English Style Raspberry Porter here about a month ago. It has been sitting in my fridge ever since, but it's one of my cranky days.. so it's time to give er a try!

Appearance: Pours a thick dark brown (almost like an uncarbonated cola) with a reddish hue to it. The head is a beige creamy mixture.. it's not going anywhere!

Aroma: First sniff didn't really give much. I expected a huge whiff of raspberries and roasted malt porter mixture. You DO notice the raspberries, but it's not as prominent as it could have been. It's a bit of a.. what I like to call, a sweet fruity perfume aroma hint to it. Not noticing any roastiness whatsoever, just the perfume from the raspberries.

Taste: The porter is there, the raspberries are there. But, it doesn't really do anything for me. It has a bit of a roasty taste to it - making up for the lack of in the aroma. The raspberries are just minimal at best.. as in that it's like just in the aftertaste and that's about it. It reminds me of if I was making toast and jam, slathered lots of butter on it, but put just an ever-so-slight amount of raspberry jam on top of it, to the point that you notice the butter more than the jam.

Overall Thoughts: Pretty underwhelming. I was hoping for much more of a burst of raspberries in this beer. I was a fan of Unibroue's Éphémère Framboise way back when. THAT beer had a raspberry zing to it. This one.. if you like an alright porter with a HINT of raspberry, then you may like this. It is $5.55 before tax for a 650mL bottle and has an ABV of 5%. Not the best bang for the buck, but since I like almost all porters, I'll continue drinking this until it's all gone.

Cody Lobreau

Welcome to BeerCrank.ca! I'm a bit obsessed about craft beer, especially Canadian craft beer so I mainly review Canadian beer but I love to try beer from all over the world as well. My goal is to help influence the casual beer drinker to go out and expand their beer palate one way or another. Feel free to send some feedback!
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